Echoes in Time

I attended Echoes in Time this past week at Willamette Mission State Park. This is a week-long gathering where all sorts of workshops are being taught about primitive living skills. I led a workshop on building a bull boat, also known as a coracle. Thanks to the help of a few people who came by to lend a hand, we had it finished on the first day! On Tuesday I carved out the paddle with my hatchet from a piece of cottonwood that I brought with me. By Tues. afternoon I took it out for it's maiden voyage in the shallow slough that runs parallel to the Willamette. I was quite pleased with it's performance.

The willow and dogwood being bent and lashed in place. Traditionally these were made with willows but I couldn't find enough good willows.

I obtained a raw buffalo hide from Pine Mountain Ranch and harvested some willow and red osier dogwood in a roadside ditch on my way to the event. Everything is lashed together with strips of rawhide lace, and the buffalo hide is then pulled up over the rim and secured with a whip stitch of rawhide all the way around.

Once the frame was completed, the buffalo hide was stretched over it and lashed in place.

The completed bull boat. After it was finished I tied the spokes across the rim of the boat to hold them in place as the hide dried. Some folks thought the rawhide would shrink and crush the frame but because I left a lot of slack in it, it didn't.

Contrary to things I read, I found the boat to be quite stable and pretty easy to enter and exit, however, I wasn't trying to carry hundreds of pounds of gear or meat in one of these as Plains Indians and mountain men often did! I was able to stand up in it though. One of the many sources I consulted in my research before building it was a website called Women of the Fur Trade. These women all built bull boats and did a river trip with them.

People wondered why I chose to put the fur side of the hide facing outward. The majority of museum photos and historical documents I read claimed them to be built this way. My guess is that if the boat took on water, it would be easy to empty out if it were just rawhide on the inside. Some sources theorized that the fur would create some drag and help the boat to track straight-ish.

After each use I lashed the ends of the spokes across the top to support the willows as the hide continued drying. The frame was pulled out of shape just a bit by the hide but not enough to cause any issues with the performance of the boat.

To paddle the boat forward it is necessary to use a paddle technique called sculling in which the paddle is moved in a sort of figure 8 pattern out in front of the boat. This propels it forward. When one tries to paddle off of one side of the boat it will spin in circles. I suspect a pair of oars would also be a functional method of propelling it forward.

I intend to take this out on some backwater sloughs of the Columbia River near my home. However, if I get it wet during our rainy season, this buffalo hide is going to eventually rot! Thanks to all who helped build this! It was a fun project.